prince0:
THE CONSPIRACY AND FRAUD IN THE POWER SECTOR

This is a story from the experience of one Mr. George Ibizugbe who lives in the Oka community of the Sokponba axis in Benin City the state capital, in November 2013, the transformer servicing their community broke down. In response to entreaties made by community residents to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), the residents contributed money to the tune of N325, 000. 00 to enable BEDC fix the transformer.
Four months later in February, the BEDC returned the repaired transformer and installed it in the community. Having exhausted the 18 units left in his prepaid meter within two days, citizen Ibizugbe approached a BEDC recharge voucher sales centre to purchase a modest N1, 000 recharge to power his prepaid meter, to his utter consternation, Ibizugbe was told that he must first pay the sum of N3, 000 representing N750 Monthly Fixed Charge multiplied by the four months during which there was no transformer in the community, when he could not afford the requested amount he had to leave and stay in darkness with his family.

This is one among the many circumstances hapless Nigerians have found themselves with the way and manner these Distribution Companies (DISCOs) reap where they have not sown, These DISCOs compulsorily add a Fixed Charge to customers’ bill alongside with the Energy Charge which is the actual consumption by customers.
THE POWER SECTOR SEGMENT
The power sector is segmented into three parts, which is the Generation (GENCO), Transmission and the Distribution (DISCO) the GENCOs generate the power and sell to the DISCOs who is closer to the end users who in turn distributes same for both industrial and domestic use. The Transmission line transports these generated power to the various DISCOs. The end consumers buy power from the DISCOs from their retail kiosks. As at the time of this write-up the Generation and the Distribution segments have been privatized save the Transmission segment which is still under the management of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

FIXED CHARGE
The Fixed Charge is a component of the customer’s electricity bill, it varies from region to region in Nigeria depending on the Distribution company in-charge of such a region, there are eleven DISCOs spread across Nigeria with different amount charged as FIXED CHARGE.
The Monthly Fixed Charge is different from the Energy Charge which is the true representation of the amount of power consumed, the Fixed Charge is paid by the Analog meter as well as the Prepaid Meter owners respectively, it is an amount the customer is compelled to pay whether energy is consumed or not, as a matter of fact, the Prepaid meter users are compelled to pay any backlog of Fixed Charge before been sold units. The Fixed Charge is free money for the DISCOs, it is for no goods or service rendered, and they collect this amount whether they sell energy to customers or not.
The Fixed Charge is different from what a lot of people refer to as Service Charge or Maintenance Fees, the Maintenance Fees have been abolished since December, 2011 and this Fixed Charge was smuggled in to replace the Maintenance Fees or Service Charge. Even while we had the Maintenance Fees or Service Charge, the customers still do the maintenance themselves; they still buy their transformers, poles, meters, strings. When the power sector was still under the defunct Nigeria Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), there was neither Maintenance Fees or Service Charge, what a customer consumed was calculated at the end of the month and actual usage bill were issued. At what point was this fraudulent FIXED CHARGE added to our bill? Why would the people be compelled to pay a Fixed Charge to privately owned entities whether they are rendered services or not? It is on good record that these DISCOs were actually transferred to family and friends of the powers that be. The BEDC makes as low as N3.5 billion naira monthly from FIXED Charges alone, a Private Liability Company that makes that much every month will not bother to improve in power supply.

NERC, A REGULATOR OR ‘STRANGULATOR’

The regulatory agency for the power sector is the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, this Federal Government agency was formed for the purpose of regulating of the power sector vis-à-vis the protection of the industry players and customers, over the years, this commission has not been able to meet up to their expectations, they appear to be more of a ‘strangulator’ than that of a regulator.
NERC has not been able to coordinate and call to order the massive and reckless drive of these DISCOs going by the way and manner these DISCOs exploit their customers, as a matter of fact, the NERC through their Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) gave these DISCOs the right to collect FIXED Charges from customers, they gave the DISCOs the impetus to collect monies they never worked for even when they are very much aware of the obvious fact that darkness is the order of the day, there is no enough energy to distribute to customers. What that means is that, whether these DISCOs have energy to distribute to customers or not they smile to the banks on daily basis while the people and businesses groan in darkness. Why would a Federal Government commission that is expected to protect the people against exploitation is the one colluding with capitalists in ‘strangulating’ the people? This has given room for questions begging for answers, does it not appear that, there is a conspiracy between the Federal Government of Nigeria and these capitalists who are bent at taking from poor Nigerians to expand their wealth.

Until the people start paying for energy consumed and the FIXED CHARGE regime is abolished, also the DISCOs are compelled to give meters to customers who have been placed on arbitrary estimated bills; Nigerians should not expect steady power supply. The Federal Government should be sincere in providing public utilities to her people without strangulating them through their various regulatory agencies.